Britain Rules That Tweets Constitute Public Information

Journalists have been given the green light to quote information and comments found in tweets, after Britain's Press Complaints Commission (PCC) ruled that citing Twitter posts in newspapers or magazines did not constitute an invasion of privacy.

The ruling came as a result of a complaint filed by a bureaucrat working for the Department of Transport. Sarah Baskerville argued that the Daily Mail newspaper had no right to quote her tweets in an article, because she had posted a disclaimer to her Twitter page indicating that the material found therein constituted her private thoughts - unendorsed by the Department of Transport - and were not for public use.

Baskerville believed that her tweets were for nobody else other than her 700 followers, including one in which she admitted to having been hung-over at work. In her disclaimer, Baskerville describes herself as being "Scottish and sober-ish."

In its ruling, the PCC argued that Baskerville could not reasonably expect that comments posted to a major social media website would necessarily remain private, as these can be forwarded or re-tweeted by any of her 700 followers.

In fact, one of the elements of social networking is the ability to share snippets of information among friends and direct them for interesting reading.

In its defence, the Daily Mail noted that Baskerville's tweets were unrestricted and thus available to people beyond simply her 700 followers.

Stephen Abell, the PCC's director, suggested that this was a landmark ruling as it opens the way for major national newspapers to turn to Social Media websites for source material.

Social network use for business ''will come of age'' in 2011

Social network use as part of business transactions will boom in 2011 as people begin to use mobile devices more than ever.

This is according to Justin Cooke, chair of the British Interactive Media Association, who pointed out that company owners are set to introduce more social transactional applications over the coming months.

The expert said these will encourage consumers to buy goods via social networks rather than simply research them, a fact that may prompt more company owners to introduce online workplace networks to deal directly with buyers.

"We are fast becoming a nation addicted to checking in, following and snacking on social media snippets while on the move," Mr Cooke commented.

This corresponds with opinions offered to the Financial Times by Joshua March from iPlatform earlier this month, who insisted that business owners should not be ignoring the rise of the social network for company use if they want to increase profits.

Businesses failing to adopt a social network ''is frustrating''

The failure of some businesses to utilise at least one social network to boost their operations is frustrating, one expert has said.

Scott Klososky, author of the new book Enterprise Social Technology, told InternetNews.com that firms which do not move with the times face missing the boat when it comes to competing with their peers, eECRMguide.com reports.

He explained that some managers are put off sites such as Facebook because of potential security threats, but likened this to throwing out the world's original PCs because their floppy disks could be lost.

"The biggest benefit is all about connecting people at a price and scale we've never had and at a speed we've never had," Mr Klososky commented.

The expert recommended using a social network like Facebook to communicate with customers and an enterprise-specific tool internally.

Earlier this month, Tom Clancy, writing for Fresh Business Thinking, recommended using social media to assist with recruitment.

Social network advertising ''to increase in 2011''

More businesses look set to make social media use part of their everyday activities in 2011, new research has suggested.

Marketing analysts at eMarketer.com expect spending on display advertising for sites such as Facebook to rocket by 70 per cent or more worldwide this year.

This will take their share of online advertising to almost 11 per cent, meaning that business owners will have more opportunities to increase communication with their clients or customers.

Total advertising spending on social networks could go up by as much as 55 per cent.

"The primary driver of the change in projected spending is greater ad spending on Facebook, by far the biggest player in the space," said eMarketer.com.

Facebook reached 500 million users worldwide last year.

However, anyone using a social network as part of a business plan will need to consider security too, as a recent report from Sophos found that two-thirds of users have been spammed in the past year, while many have also received malware.

Facebook Deals – adding the ‘what’ to the where and who

Facebook Deals is the new service from Facebook. Put simply Deals puts retailer- or brand-driven promotions into the hands of customers who disclose their location by “checking in” at a venue.

Checking in is accomplished by connecting your mobile phone’s GPS location capabilities to a directory of venues’ locations. When a Facebook user gives her location, Facebook can not only connect that location to a venue (the existing Places service) but can now direct a ‘deal’ or offer to that user.

So much, so Foursquare (the location-based service that allows users to ‘check in’ to venues). Also there are echoes of Groupon, but this is no clone monster designed as a me-too service. Rather, FB Deals builds on a the growth in mobile use of Facebook, the desire of users to ‘connect’ with a brand or retail location, and the interest of retailers in connecting with those customers who are present and thinking about them.

The interest for retailers lies largely in the Facebook ecosystem, it’s “friend” focus and the analytics available. Some benefits include:

• deals can be unlocked when, for example, TWO friends are together (an example being YoSushi’s offer, that gives some free food where two friends check in to eat together. This is a means of new customer acquisition, rather than simple rewarding habitual customers for checking in)
• when customers check in the retailer can access rich information about them from their Facebook profile – gender, age, aspects of their social graph and shared information. This can supplement customer insight programmes and assist in future targeting.
• the service is, according to Facebook, free of commissions and charges to the retailer.

Joanna Shields, VP EMEA at Facebook, noted “Facebook is built around people and sharing personal experiences and Deals is a great extension of this. By bringing valuable and relevant offers to you wherever and whenever you want them, Deals delivers a powerful experience that combines technology and location in a way that a pure online or offline experience could never deliver”.

Some retailers ‘in’ on the launch include Argos, Benetton and Debenhams. Both Argos and Benetton are offering charity donations in return for checkins by customers. This could demonstrate that the back-end systems to create and manage promotions are not yet in place, or that they’re taking a ‘marketing promotions’ approach in the early stages. Debenhams have an offer for Valentine’s Day, where up to 1,000 mascaras will be given to the first 10 people in each store who check in.

Harriet Williams, Head of Digital Development at Debenhams, noted:

“With over 60 per cent of our customers active on Facebook and 164 Debenhams stores across the UK, we predict a rush of keen shoppers will be checking into our stores and checking out our deals”

We expect that, given the phenomenal reach of Facebook, especially on mobile, that this offering will be a popular one, building as it does upon customers’ established behaviours of sharing with friends and checking in via Places.

The test for retailers will be the ease of management of the deals, integration with promotional engines and campaign management, eCRM integration – and not least, whether smaller retailers will get access to the scheme.

All of these questions will be answered in time, but as of today Facebook has added a further reason to spend one’s life glued to a mobile phone, and retailers have a further promotional channel to exploit.